Improvement in electric telegraphs



Sheds-Sheet 1. G. H. HORN.

Telegraph. v

' Patented June 25, 1850 V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

one. H. Bonn er BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

'l M PROVEM ENT I'N ELECTRIC TEL EGRAPHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,455, dated June 25,1850.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE H. HORN, of

.Boston, in the county of Sufiolk and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented a new or Improved Telegraph, which operates by means of acurrent of electricity, and which, for the sake of distinguishing itfrom. various other telegraphs in;'use,1denominate the Electro- CausticTelegraph; and I do hereby declare thatthe same is fully described andrepre- 'Fig. 3, a central,vertical, and longitudinal section of it. Fig.4 is a front-end view.

For manyyears it has been known that when a current of electricity. iscaused to pass through a metallic wire greater than it can readilytransmit, such wirev becomes more or less heated, and if a verys'mall orattenuated wire of platina or other poor conductor be ems ployed'itmaybe heated to a scorchi'n g or burnin g heat. It is on the applicationof this wellknown property, principle, or, electrical phe nomenon to thepurposes of making signals or marks on or holes through paper,-or someother proper material, that my invention depends; or, in other words, itmay be said'to be what constitutes the base of it. y

. One jinode of carrying my invention into practice? I have representedin the drawings above referred to. 4

In Fig. 3 of the said drawings, a denotes a -fine or attenuated platinumor. metallicwire,

stretched over a thin bridge, I), made of glass or other propernon-conductor of electricity, .the said bridge being upheld by asupporting column or post, 0, which is raised upona suitable base orboard, 0. The middle part of the wire a is placed on the bridge, the twohalves of the wire being bent at a suitable angle to each other and heldbetween and by two'me- .tallic forceps or nippers, A B, arranged onopposite sides of the post a, and respectively supported by posts orstandards 0 D, which ex tend upward from thebase-board and arerespectively connected to the two telegraphic wires E F, which proceedfrom the battery or generator of electricity, the connection being madein such manner that the electric current or fluid in its passage fromone pole of the bat tery to the other maybe transmitted through the wirea and cause the same to be heated. A transverses ection of the wire at,its bridge I), and the apparatus,isrepresented by Fig. 5. Along, strip-of paper, f, or other suitable combustible material, is caused to reston and to pass over the top surface of the middle part of the platinumwire a: .In order to properly sustain such strip f, I also cause it torest upon ahorizontal supporting-plate, g, through which the 'wire a andits bridge are made to extend,

the said plate 9 being made of glass, horn, or some other propermaterial known to beanonconductor of electricity. This plate g may besupported by an arm,h, extended horizontally from the top of asustaining-post, 'i. V In order to keep the strip f down upon the topsurface of the plate 9 and in contact with the wire a,I make useof aforked-spring or "plate, It, the same being, made with an -open- 'ing orpassage, 1, cut through one end of it so that it maystraddle the wire aandrest on the paper on each side ot'it. The other end of the spring kis fastened to aframe or standard, m, raised on the arm h, the saidframe having a thumb-screw, 10, applied to it in such manner as to becapable of being screwed down upon the spring, and so as to increase ordiminish itspressure on the'strip f or permit it to rise above the same,as occasion may require.

The strip of paper may first be wound upon areel, o, from which it maybe led or carried to and over the wire a, and thenceto and between a setof drawing-rollers, q 1', which, by means of suitable mechanism orclock-work apparatus, maybe made to rotate with a regular velocity, suchas may be sufihoient to draw the strip of paper endwise, and witharegular or proper velocity, from off the reel 0 and over the wire a.

I do not confine my invention to any partic ular kind of mechanism forproducing the motion of the strip f, butv intend to make use of such asis generally. employed in telegraphic machinery, 'or such as may beconveniently ,used'. In fact such apparatus should not be considered asan essential part of myinvention, as the motion of the strip fmay beproduced by the hamlet a person applied to it and so acting upon it asto draw or pull it lengthwise.

Durin g the flow of an electric current throu gh the wire a, and. whilethe paper is resting on and passing in contact with the said wire, theheat produced in the wire will either burn through or into the paper,and if the current is stopped or interrupted the wire will in stantly orimmediately become cool or cease to burn the strip f, nor will it againburn until the electric current is again caused to pass through it. Itis, therefore, by means, of the heat generated in the wire, theinterruptions of the electric current, together with the pas- V I do notconfine my invention either to the precise form or arrangement orconstruction of any or all of the parts or mechanism as above detailedordes'eribed, as it will be evidentthat the positions of theessentialparts as'well as their construction maybe somewhat orconsiderably varied, and still they be made toembody my invention andoperate substantially in the manner as above described.

What I claim as my invention is- Theabove-described new or improvedelectro-caustie telegraph, or application to telegraphic purposes, and,substantially as speci fied, of heat generated by electric apparatus ora current or currents of electricity passed through a-fine platinum wireor other proper conductors or equivalents therefor, as explained, themarks produced in or through the paper or other material used inconnection with the heated wire being regulated in their length andnumber so as to'be characters or expressions of letters, figures, orwords indicative of any message which it may be desirable totransmit'from the battery end ot'the telegraph to the other end of theline} all essentially as set forth, or in the manner gener- .allyunderstood by telegraphic operators. In testimony whereof I have heretoset my signature this 9th day of March," A. D. 1850. G. H; HORN.Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, FRANCIS'GOULD.

